Have you ever wondered why seemingly smart or balanced people do crazy things or have out of control responses?

You may be surprised to learn that the primitive mind or the limbic brain plays a huge role in the decisions we make based on survival, emotions and memory that is stored. Sensations, emotions, and thoughts are responses to the data that is coming into the mind. This creates behavior or action. Our senses bring in data from inside or from outside of our bodies. The human mind can remember what has been imagined in the way of what we call stored data or memory.

Dr. Jon Connelly founder and creator of Rapid Resolution Therapy or RRT® helps us to understand the similarities of people’s primitive minds working in a similar fashion to an animal’s mind.

“Animals respond to data as events are taking place. If a zebra is thinking about a lion, there is a lion within sight of the zebra. Fear makes the zebra flee from the lion. Anger causes zebra to attack the other zebra that is trying to mount his mate. As soon as the other zebra flees, there is no longer any anger. When a bunny is safely down the rabbit hole away from the approaching fox, fear shuts off. Fear and anger are the most powerful emotional responses to a perceived threat. When an animal experiences a sensation they become immediately stronger, more alert and motivated to take an action. It turns on when useful and shuts off when not.

For humans when a feeling is created to generate an action and there is no action taking place, then the feeling is experienced as painful. One problem is that these actions are not appropriate even at the time of the experience they are being generated in response to what is taking place. The other and perhaps even bigger problem is that the feelings can continue to be generated when the event is no longer taking place.”

Some people, even some therapists would suggest that the solution is to “get the feeling out” but this is not the case. Usually when one is “getting anger out” he might be getting other people angry and this of course causes them to act in ways that create new anger. Even if he is “getting anger out” buy screaming into a pillow, it is not much of a solution. There is not a feeling that is stuck that needs to be let out. It is the way people’s minds have been misreading data.

What’s Going OnOur culture and the advanced part of our human minds (frontal lobe) have evolved, while our primitive mind (amygdala) and our nervous systems has remained on about the same level as a zebra. The human mind stores information and also creates data by attaching meaning to experiences, as well as by imagining. The human mind can remember what has been imagined. If we see meaning in something, then what we see is distorted but the meanings that our minds attach to the data that disturbs us is likely to be even more deeply distorted. The primitive part of the mind can confuse the data that was disturbing This can be problematic if the past data gets stuck around something that was disturbing and now is close to incoming data about a particular event, it can get read as similar.

Dr. Connelly gives us an example of “the combat veteran who dove under his living room couch when he heard the firecracker go off in his yard. The sound of the firecracker had enough in common with the sound of the guns that his mind began to read the data about the battle that was stored as if it was incoming. In this extreme example the mind was no longer reading incoming data. He was no longer seeing his wife’s photograph on the wall or his dog a few feet in front of him. In a milder example perhaps he just says “ I don’t like hearing those firecrackers because they remind me of things that happened during the war”.

A better solution might be to recognize that the experience is not happening and therefore does not exist and therefore poses no threat. The solution is to clear what was problematic in order to cause the mind at a deeper level to be updated. Rapid Resolution Therapy is an integrative approach that clears the negative effects from painful life experiences gently and painlessly. The client realizes with all facets of their mind (frontal lobe-logic & amygdala-feelings) that the event is finished and gone. Blocked energy is released, and negative emotions and habits are replaced with energy and positive feelings. Change is automatic and lasting. If you have been dealing with troubling emotions or behaviors, we are here to help. Contact us at 561-741-4181 or info@rapidresolutiontherapy.com to book a private session with Dr. Jon Connelly or click here to to find an RRT practitioner in your area.

Sexual violence can happen anytime to anyone whether it is a man, woman or child and the emotional and physical effects can be traumatic.

Every 2 minutes another American is sexually assaulted. Each year, there are about 237, 868 victims of sexual assault and it is estimated that 15-25% of women will experience some type of sexual abuse in their lifetime (www.rainn.org) While it affects more women than men, both sexes are known to have had sexual abuse attempts or an actual violation against their will that forces them into some type of sexual interaction. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts-Bostonsuggest that one in six men is sexually abused before the age of 16 (France, 2008).

In over half of the sexual assaults in the United States, it was done by someone that they knew (James, 2008). Sexual abuse can be defined as either the trauma from being raped, incest, enduring prolonged sexual abuse as a child or in some cases having trauma from sexual mutilation. The psychological trauma for victims of sexual abuse is second only to war victims and puts the individual at a high risk to develop PTSD (James, 2008). Many times this type of trauma can leave a person feeling guilt, shame, confusion, betrayed and stress in many of life’s everyday situations including relationships. Victims of sexual assault are 26 times more likely to abuse drugs and additional effects can include self harm, eating disorders, sleep disorders, body memories, depression, flashbacks, personality disorders, and suicide attempts (www.rainn.org)

Typical psychotherapy treatments can be lengthy, and emotionally painful and most therapists encourage the client to re-live the past experience to “get the emotions out” or “forgive their perpetrator” that is intended to be helpful, but most cases result in the client feeling re-traumatized.

Treatment for sexual violence and the resulting trauma was what originally createdRapid Trauma Resolution® therapy and the non-profit organization known as the Institute for Survivors of Sexual Violence (ISSV). Dr. Jon Connelly devised an integrative approach that clears the negative effects of trauma stemming from the painful life experience of sexual violence. The exact traumatic event needing resolution is cleared even if it has been repressed or forgotten. The client stays fully present and the effects of trauma are cleared gently and painlessly. Through treatment techniques the client realizes at a deeper level that the event is finished and gone. Negative emotions are replaced with energy and peace and limiting behavioral patterns disappear. Blocked energy is released and healing takes place to support a higher level of functioning and health.

Therapists certified in Rapid Trauma Resolution® (RTR) are committed to providing the most valuable experience of treatment available. If you have been struggling from the effects from sexual trauma, we can help. Contact us at 561-741-4181 or info@rapidresolutiontherapy.com to book a private session with Dr. Jon Connelly or click here to to find an RRT practitioner in your area.

Anxiety can be defined as what occurs when an individual is in an unpleasant state of inner turmoil often accompanied by nervous behavior.

Symptoms of anxiety may include racing thoughts or physical sensations that might include increased heart rate, increased perspiration, or shortness of breath. Anxiety is not the same as fear which is an appropriate response when a person is perceiving his own body and mind’s response to a threat as a threat. Conflict comes when the perceived threat is not real or when a person is unable to take an action that the body has become stronger for.

When a person perceives a threat, every bodily system immediately changes in order to make him stronger. These bodily changes cause a variety of sensations. Anxiety is what happens when a person feels threatened by the sensations that accompanies changes that his bodily systems go through in order to increase strength. This perception of threat leads to a further increase in strength, and thus an increase in sensations.It is natural for our intellect to be motivated to acquire information when something or a situation is perceived as a threat. Since the threat that is perceived is inside, the mind seeks information about itself. Racing thoughts can be disturbing when they are about something on the outside, but are even more disturbing when they are about the inside (e.g., “what is wrong with me?”)

Our minds make complex patterns of association, both through data clumps and through meanings. When someone experiences an emotional response, he is likely to attribute it to a situation. Perceived like this, the problem has two parts, the situation and the emotional response to that situation. The emotional response triggered by the situation associates with other similar emotional responses from past events. The mind automatically attaches meaning to events and the meaning attached to the event associates with similar meanings. Multiple factors, many below the level of conscious awareness, are combining to create the feeling.

Rapid Resolution Therapy® (RRT) targets and clears the perceived threat that is causing the anxiety. Treatment for anxiety keeps a clients present and uses techniques that will empower the client to accomplish things that were once troubling. This perceived threat may be internal, external or attached to something that happened in the past whether consciously remembered or not. Regardless of where the anxiety is coming from, RRT will address on a deeper level the thought that was causing the troubling emotions and physical feelings. Therapists certified in Rapid Resolution Therapy® (RRT) are committed to providing the most valuable experience of treatment available. Negative habits and disturbing emotions are replaced by positive feelings of peace and actions that are beneficial. Your mind is able to determine and highlight what is real and valuable in ways that supports a higher level of functioning. Blocked energy is released and healing takes place.